Cuesta Women's Swimming fielded only five swimmers for the 2022 Western State Conference Championship but won five of the 13 individual swimming events to take 4th place in the ten-team event. Freshman Annie Bartolome (pict) tied for the meet lead with three event titles but lost out on WSC Swimmer of the Year to Risa Akatsu of Santa Monica, who also won three titles for the 7th place Corsairs. Bartolome joined double-event winner Meghan Abbott to lead the Cougars' quintet into the title chase. Bartolome was dominant on the weekend; she won the maximum three individual event titles, and her only loss of the weekend was to Akatsu in an exhibition swim. Bartolome opened her weekend with a win in the 100-butterfly and was the only competitor to break the one-minute barrier. Her time of :58.48 was also the second fastest time at Cuesta for the event. On the same day, she broke Jessica Hancher's 1993 Cuesta 50-backstroke record and became the first Cuesta Swimmer, and only competitor to break the one-minute barrier, with a time of :58.15. On Saturday, she broke her second Cuesta Record and won her third title with a time of 2:06.67 in the 200-backstroke to snap Molly Casey's 2015 record. Abbott joined Bartolome on all three of the Cougars' relay wins and added her own titles in the distance freestyle events. Abbott won both the 500 (5:21.28) and 1,650-freestyles (18:58.91), while moving into Cuesta's Top 5 for both events. Building off Bartolome's and Abbott's big wins, despite facing teams with double and triple their numbers, the 'Cuesta Five' reached the finals (Top 8) in 13 of their 14 races and crushed the competition in the relays. The Cougars won three of their five relays, while also taking one runner-up spot and a fourth place.
Cuesta Women's Swimming head to the three-day 2022 CCCAA State Championship on May 5, at East LA College.
2022 Cuesta Women's Swim & Dive- All Western State Conference Honors
Annie Bartolome (1st)- 100-Butterfly
Annie Bartolome (1st)- 100-Backstroke
Annie Bartolome (1st)- 200-Backstroke
Meghan Abbott (1st)- 500-Freestyle
Meghan Abbott (1st)- 1650-Freestyle
Anna Kreowski (2nd) 200-Freestyle
Jensen Perry (2nd) 100-Freestyle
Meghan Abbott (3rd)- 200-Freestyle
Jensen Perry (3rd)- 50-Freestyle
Jensen Perry (4th)- 200-Freestyle
Chloe Porter (5th)- 100-Backstroke
1st Place- All-WSC First Team; 2nd Place- All-WSC Second Team, 3rd-5th All-WSC Honorable Mention
